The richness of present-moment experience is the richness of life itself. Too often we let our thinking and our beliefs about what we “know” prevent us from seeing things as they really are. We tend to take the ordinary for granted and fail to grasp the extraordinariness of the ordinary. To see the richness of the present mo­ment, we need to cultivate what has been called “beginner’s mind,” a mind that is willing to see everything as if for the first time.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

The next time you see somebody who is familiar to you, ask yourself if you are seeing this person with fresh new eyes, as he or she really is, or if you are only seeing the reflexion of your own thoughts about this person, and your feelings as well.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

In Community

As you notice any preconceived ideas you might have about others, we invite you to accept those thoughts without judgement and to keep yourself open to new possibilities.

As an example, let’s say you are practicing watching your breathing. At a certain point, you may find your mind saying something like, “This is boring,” or “This isn’t working,” or “I can’t do this.” These are judgments. When they come up in your mind, it is very important to recognize them as judgmental thinking and remind yourself that the practice involves suspending judgment and just watching whatever comes up, including your own judging thoughts, without pursuing them or acting on them in any way. Then proceed with watching your breathing.

In other words: it is a natural function for the mind to judge, but judgements are thoughts, notice the judgement without getting caught up in it.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

When meditating remind yourself that the practice involves suspending judgment and just watching whatever comes up, including your own judging thoughts, without pursuing them or acting on them in any way. Then go back to riding the waves of your breathing with full awareness again.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

In Community

We invite you to become aware of any judgements and see them as thoughts, allowing them to pass, instead of getting caught up in them. This is critical when we are sharing our experiences with one another, and it lays a clear foundation of safety for each other.

Acceptance is a very active process, there is nothing passive about it, it’s not passive resignation but an act of recognition that things are the way they are… Acceptance doesn’t mean we cant work to change the world, or circumstances, but it means that unless we accept things as they are, we will try to force things to be as they are not and that can create an enormous amount of difficulty.

In other words: Acknowledge that things are hard if they are, but take your time with how you feel and then take action.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

We can be sure of one thing, namely, that whatever we are attending to in this moment will change, giving us the opportunity to practice accepting whatever it is that will emerge in the next moment.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

In Community

We invite you to practice accepting yourself, even the things that you consider unpleasant or unhelpful. By having this attitude towards yourself, you will open a door of acceptance towards others.

Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time. A child may try to help a butterfly to emerge by breaking open its chrysalis. Usually, the butterfly doesn’t benefit from this. Any adult knows that the butterfly can only emerge in its own time, that the process cannot be hurried.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

To be patient is simply to be completely open to each moment, accepting it in its fullness, knowing that, like the butterfly, things can only unfold in their own time.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

In Community

We invite you to be patient with yourself and others when faced with a difficult emotion, allowing for some time to be with things as they are, holding yourself and others with kindness and compassion.

Developing a basic trust in yourself and your feelings is an integral part of meditation training. It is far better to trust in your intuition and your own authority, even if you make some “mistakes” along the way, than always to look outside of yourself for guidance. If at any time something doesn’t feel right to you, why not honor your feelings? Why should you discount them or write them off as invalid because some authority or some group of people think or say differently? This attitude of trusting yourself and your own basic wisdom and goodness is very important in all aspects of the medita­tion practice.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

Your only hope is to become more fully yourself. Anybody who is imitating somebody else, no matter who it is, is heading in the wrong direction. It is impossible to become like somebody else. Your only hope is to become more fully yourself…Learning to listen and trust your own being. The more you cultivate this trust in yourself, the easier you will find it will be to trust other people more and to see their basic goodness as well.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

In Community

We trust that you have the answers and know what is best for you. You are the only one that can truly know what you need. In the same way we ask that you trust others to have their own answers, and to allow them to reach these answers on their own without external advice or help.

As you will see with practice, in the meditative domain, the best way to achieve your own goals is to back off from striving for results and instead to start focusing carefully on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment by moment. With patience and regular practice, movement toward your goals will take place by itself. This move­ment becomes an unfolding that you are inviting to happen within you.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

It has no goal other than for you to be yourself. The irony is that you already are.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

In Community

We are all at different stages in our practice. As you practice balancing your own effort, you also create the space for others to do the same.

Letting go is a way of letting things be, of accepting things as they are. When we observe our mind grasping and pushing away, we remind ourselves to let go of those impulses on purpose, just to see what will happen if we do. when we find ourselves judging our experience we let go of those judging thoughts. We recognize them and we just don’t pursue them any further, we let them be, and in doing so, we let them go.

…We direct our attention to what holding on feels like, holding on is the opposite to letting go.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

If we try to force ourselves to sleep, it just makes things worse. So if you can go to sleep, you are already an expert at letting go, now you just need to practice applying this skill in waking situations as well.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

In Community

Letting go allows for new opportunities and experiences. We invite you to experience the moment as a blank canvas, and allow for any ideas you might have about the unfolding of our time together to be noticed without holding on to these ideas too tight.

Gratitude is an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received. We recognize that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves. … We acknowledge that other people—or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset—gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.

~Robert Emmons

On Your Own

The simple act of appreciating the moment exactly as it is.

In Community

As we practice together we cultivate a sense of gratitude towards ourselves and others for setting this time aside to practice together.

The sense of how powerful it is, when you give yourself to life and that you give other people what would make them happy, not for your self but because it gives joy to others and it enhances interconnectedness, it demonstrates that you care and that you have actually given some time and attention and thought to someone other than yourself.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

On Your Own

You are here, you are practicing, this in itself is one of the biggest acts of generosity towards yourself.

In Community

We believe that the greatest act of generosity for one another is to provide a sense of safety. This is done by embracing these attitudinal foundations, practicing them while we are together with great care, and sharing our experience from the first person.